Charlotte, N.C. — The Startup Blog: Venture capital funding is scarce, but that doesn't mean the Triangle lacks several promising emerging companies. Here's a look at what we believe are the "elite eight."...

You're using the wrong metric to rank startups, Joe. The goal is not to raise money, the goal is to *make* money. Raising funding, institutional or otherwise is not the raison d'etre of startups. The point is to create value and exchange that value for dollars. Taking funding is just a tool to help get there. Some will use that tool, some won't. As you yourself pointed out, Bronto are a bootstrapped company (to date).

I know that entrepreneurs love to talk about VC funding as though it were the Holy Grail, but I think this kind of article is actually damaging since it promotes a false mindset - "raise money or you don't count". It's harder to quantify, but I think one should focus on the ultimate potential of a company, based on their tech, the target market, their team, etc., as opposed to fixating on a short-term issue like "will they raise an A round or not".